Battelle 2nd in Japan Dual Moguls

Iizuna Kogen, Japan, Feb. 12, 2001--Three-time Olympian Ann Battelle (Steamboat Springs, CO) posted her best result of the season Saturday,finishing second in a World Cup dual moguls event in Japan. Canada took a double victory with Tami Bradley and Stephane Rochon topping thefields.

Following Bradley and Battelle, Norwegian Kari Traa was third and Japan's Aiko Uemura was fourth. Emiko Torito (Englewood, CO) had the bestWorld Cup result of her career, placing seventh.

Battelle, who has won the past two World Cup titles, is coming back from a shoulder injury suffered during a Mt. Hood training camp inSeptember. She had surgery to repair the broken socket on Sept. 21 and did not compete until Jan. 17 at World Championships. Battelle justmissed making the finals in moguls, but rebounded to take sixth in duals at Worlds. She finished fourth on Jan. 28 in a World Cup mogulscontest at Sunday River, Maine.

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Bradley strung together several flawless runs to take the win. Traa, who won gold medals in singles and duals in January at the WorldChampionships, remains the World Cup overall points leader.

For Rochon, it was his fourth dual mogul victory of the season. He defeated Japan's Yugo Tsukita in the finals on the Tae Satoya course, the '98Nagano Olympic hill. Yusuke Kitamura from Japan was third over Finland's Janne Lahtela, the World Cup points leader.

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Lahtela had to call it quits following the quarterfinals after suffering an apparent left knee injury. No official word was given except that Lahtela willreturn to Finland for further examination and diagnosis.

"I don't think it's serious," said Lahtela. "I've had worse than this before."

No American men competed Saturday in Japan. They are concentrating on training and competing in single moguls, which is the Olympicdiscipline.

A moguls competition will be run Sunday. It is the final freestyle event prior to the World Cup Finals, which will be held March 9-11 in Himos,Finland.